convenant, that this race might find a resting-place, and among His chosen people have a witness of civil and religious liberty. These three rolls, thus lodged in the ark of the covenant of civil liberty, declared, among other things,—
First, Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime,whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.[1]
Secondly, All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the States wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law, which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.[2]
Thirdly, The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.[3]
An abstract inquiry concerning the legal status of the civil rights, in general, of this race of American citizens, apparently involves a sound, broad, fundamental interpretation of these special charters of liberty and equality, viewed from the loftiest national stand-point. The intention of their framers and of the States which adopted them was that they should operate to convey to the emancipated race the civil liberty guaranteed by the Constitution, as thus amended, to the American people, as long as that Constitution should survive in its integrity. To whatever extent controversies have heretofore arisen, and are now daily arising and engaging the attention of the courts through out the country, respecting the legal status of the civil rights of these citizens, the abridgment of their privileges and immunities as citizens, and the denial to them of the equal protection of the laws; there has never been, nor can there be, any dis-
